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240 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
and don’t take any agricultural paper; they 
are always too hard up and can’t afford it. I 
commenced taking the Genesee Farmer when 
a boy about 18 years old and have been taking 
one or more agricultural papers ever since, 
and several times I have got ideas or facts 
from the paper one of which would pay me 
to take the paper as long as I live. I like the 
Rural first-rate and expect to take it as long 
as I live. 
EXPERIENCE WITH OATS. 
A. T. T., Franklin Park, N. J.—That 
there is nothing certain excepting death and 
quarter day is an old saw whose antiquity 
does not lessen its veracity. From it may 
be deduced, also that all the world’s an ex¬ 
periment. From the vantage point of the 
la 9 t half of an average life the experimental 
character of the world will be plainly dis¬ 
cerned, which substantiates the triteness of the 
saying that our hind-sight is much better than 
our fore sight, as during the first half of life 
we are quite apt to mistake mere surmises for 
actual truths. Of the experimental character 
of much of the results of his 365 day s’ yearly 
labor the farmer is tolerably well aware. To 
be sure he has it recorded that seed time and 
harvest shall not fail, but toe variations of 
the unfailing seed time and harvest are so ex¬ 
ceedingly multiplied that results, which are 
what he counts on, are too uncertain to be 
classified other than experimental (No re¬ 
flections intended on the Rural’s sanguine 
attempts to produce a specified harvest of po¬ 
tatoes regardless of conditions.) A couple of 
years ago a writer m another farm paper ad¬ 
vised that oats be sown in February on snow, 
stating that the crop would be as certain as if 
sown in the time of year formerly deemed 
suitable or even more certain, and, besides, it 
would be a month in advance ot the old way. 
The writer ot this article has not hesitated to 
enthuse at any plausible theory in this line 
and his personal investigations, it must be 
conscientiously admitted, have sometimes 
had a depressing effect financially. Repeated 
disappointments will after a time convince 
the greatest zealot that the best laid plans 
may come to naught; therefore it was with a 
laudable degree of prudence that this 
particular experiment was determined up¬ 
on. A small piece of ground on y was 
therefore devoted to the trial. Daring 
the latter part of February a small depth 
of snow presented the proper conditions, 
and a couple of square rods of ground plowed 
the Fall before were sown with oats. They 
were washed in properly according to rule, 
every kernel being nicely mixed in its muddy 
little hed. The wintry season was extended 
somewhat beyond the usual period owing to 
the inclement weather which may have mili¬ 
tated against the anticipated crop. How¬ 
ever, I did not look for sprouting oats before 
the snow banks had subsided, but 1 did look 
for them later and looked in vain. No oats 
were so green as to appear above ground by 
the middle of April. On cultivating the field 
the last week in April preparatory to sowing 
oats, the two square rods assigned to the early 
crop were found sprinkled over with a black¬ 
ened aud rotted mass of seed from which it was 
evident not even the faintest effort at vitality 
had manifested itself after being sown. If 
the soil is a light sandy one possibly oats 
might wash in deep enough to thrive, but if, 
on the contrary, it is a heavy clayey one the 
grain is much better off in the owner’s granary 
until nature’s own time has arrived. The 
writer once sowed a quarter of an acre of 
Southern winter oats and harvested in June 
the following year 17 bushels of fine oats. 
That fall two acres were sown on equally 
good or better land aud not a quart was har¬ 
vested. It is said there is no effect without a 
causa; probably the cause of this difference in 
results was the difference in seasons. The 
first being a mild winter and the latter a cold 
one. If there was any moral at all to this ex¬ 
periment it may bo to sow no winter oats in 
this latitude. 
LIME AS A MANURE. 
B. R., Broad Ford, Pa.— There have lately 
been several inquiries and a number of articles 
published in the Rural in regard to lime as a 
fertilizer, and the conclusions of all are alto¬ 
gether different from the results of my exper¬ 
ience as well as of every farmer in Fayette 
aud Westmoreland counties who has 
used lime on his laud. There have been mil¬ 
lions of bushels of lime used in these two 
counties the last 60 years and there is more 
used each succeeding year. I have myself 
burned 50,000 bushels in less than 20 years, 
and, instead of lime enriching the father and 
impoverishing the son, all my experience and 
every other farmer’s here is just the contrary. 
As to putting sufficient on land to do the best 
it is expensive even where limestoue is handy 
and fuel cheap, and it fails to do the best until 
10 years after it is put on. Though its effect 
on small grain aud grass is immediate it 
shows most’and^does the best for wheat and 
clover. I have by the use of lime alone 
raised 20 bushels of wheat per acre on land 
that before applying it produced only from 
three to five bushels, and land that at it3 
best produced 20 bushels, after liming pro¬ 
duced 30 bushels per acre. People here who 
use lime put on from 300 to 1,000 bushels to 
the acre, which at five cents per bushel, is 
quite expensive at first, but it will last for 
thirty years when enough is put on. 
The way we bum lime here is to select as 
level a site as we can, and put a double layer 
of dry wood (old rails are the best) all laid the 
same way, then a layer of coal, then a thin 
layer of limestone, then a heavy layer of coal, 
and a heavy layer of limestone, and after 
this lighter layers of coal alternately to the 
top. The larger the kiln the less the cost per 
bushel, as two kilns of 5,000 bushels each, will 
take one-third more coal than one of 10,000 
bushels. It is generally hauled out as soon as 
it is cool enough, which is a most disagreeable 
job, particularly on a hot or windy day. It is 
put in piles until it rains 'never covered) when 
it is evenly spread. A better way is to bum 
the lime a year before using, and scatter 
direct from the wagon; it is just as effective 
and a great deal pleasanter way. I can raise 
more wheat by the use of lime alone than by 
the use of the best manure. Our best land is 
limestone clay, while the lime is in the ground 
naturally. I can’t see why it is not just as 
good put there artificially. We have land 
here (limestone clay) that has been farmed 
for 100 years without any manure, that pro¬ 
duces as well as it did 50 years ago. Put a 
heavy coat of manure on land and in five 
years the land will lose all the effect of the 
manure and be as poor as before. If you still 
keep on farming the land without any 
manure it will be poorer; does that prove 
that the manure impoverished the soil? If 
lime is useless on land, what fools the farmers 
must be! But they don’t care whether it has 
any plant food or not so long as it makes 
things grow. I think there are more things 
in nature than are dreamed of by theoretical, 
not scientific farmers. 
CARE OF MANURE. 
H. N., Lincoln, III.—F. M., South Bend, 
Indiana, asks in the R. N.-Y. of February 23, 
how to keep horse manure from burning. 
The auswer is that thoroughly saturating it 
with water and compressing it will keep it 
from burning. How this is best accomplished 
is what I want to point out. The ground 
where it is intended to pile the manure, should 
be nearly level, (for although it takes a good 
deal of water to keep horse manure from 
burning, it should not be placed in a hole or 
depression where water can collect) make the 
piles about nine feet or more wide and as long 
as the manure will go or the room permit. 
Build the pile as nearly straight upon the sides 
as you cau, and every layer of one foot or less 
must receive a thorough sprinkling with 
water and be tramped as in building a hot¬ 
bed. After the pile is as high as desired and 
heat rises, the tramping must be repeated for 
a few days until the pile appears solid. There 
it is to be left undisturbed till wanted. If a 
good rain strikes it, so much the better, as the 
manure will absorb all that falls on top of it 
if the pile is flat. It should be arranged con¬ 
veniently for getting the water there. Putting 
barrels on the wagon and throwing the water 
over the pile with a pail, did not prove satis¬ 
factory to me, as the work will often be 
neglected until one or more days’ haulings 
have accumulated; then the water will not 
soak through and the lower part will fire- 
fang and spoil. The better way is, if a well 
is not by the manure already, to have one 
dug for the purpose with a good force pump 
in it. A tank or a lot of oil barrels should be 
prepared for the water and stand a little 
higher than the pile is going to be, and there 
should be a rubber hose of sufficient length 
with sprayiug nozzle attached to it. Do not 
think this will entail too much expense or 
labor, for if the manure is worth hauling, it 
is certainly worth preserving, and the more 
carefully and thoroughly this is done, the bet¬ 
ter satisfaction will be given. There is a differ¬ 
ence between heating and flre-fanging. I 
want manure to heat to a considerable extent 
in order to destroy grass seeds contained 
in it and to hasten decomposition. Horse 
manure treated as above, is the best covering 
and mulch for strawberries that I can find. 
As to swine, 1 think they are entirely out of 
place on a large pile of heating horse manure; 
they like to lie on it, but they generally 
take cold from it and it is the worst place for 
them to lie down. Rooting it over and ex¬ 
posing it to the air is of no benefit to the 
manure. Where small quantities of manure 
are thrown out daily or weokly, cattle tramp¬ 
ing and lying down on it will preserve it in 
the best manner. I compost nearly all the 
manure I use and do not spread or pile any 
on land that I want to plow early in spring, 
until the ground is dry enough to plow; tnen 
having the manure at hand and in good con¬ 
dition, a man can spread half an acre and 
plow it the same day. If the manure is spread 
in winter, it may be better for the land, but 
it keeps the latter wet or heavy too long in 
spring and renders it unfit for early gardening. 
At least this is the case with my soil unless 
the manure has been perfectly rotten. 
MORE ABOUT “GRAIN HAT”. 
R. A. S., Joseph, Oregon.— A writer in a 
recent Rural wants to know more about our 
practice of feeding grain hay. I will try and 
tell him how we do out here. Wheat and 
oats mixed make the best. Some sow wheat, 
oats and barley. I don’t like barley mixed 
with wheat and oats,as it ripens much earlier. 
We sow a bushel of wheat and a bushel of 
oats. The proper time to cut gram hay Is 
when it is in bloom. If I cut with a mower I 
let it lie in the swath until it wilts a very lit¬ 
tle,then cock it up in big cocks and let it cure 
One will have to use his own judgment about 
curing it. Out here we always have dry 
weather in harvest and can put hay up green 
and it will cure in the cock. The best way to 
cut grain hay is with a self-rake reaper or 
binder; then it is free from dust. Some bind 
their hay the same as grain; it is much more 
easily handled and doesn’t occupy so much 
room in ttie bam. “Is it enough better than 
Timothy to be worth the price of straw and 
grain in the Eastern market ?” For milch 
cows I think it is better feed, but the greatest 
advantage it has over Timothy is that it will 
grow on land on which Timothy won’t, and I 
think it will make a third more hay than 
Timothy on the same land. Then again, 
where grain lodges, a man can make it into 
hay and derive a profit, whereas if he let 
it lie it would not amount to much. 
For horse feed I would let the grain stand un¬ 
til the head got in the milk for all kinds of 
farm work. A man can work a team without 
any other feed by giving them time to eat 
what they want at noon. A person must feed 
grain very sparingly when he feeds grain 
hay that has stood until it got in the milk. 
Any kind of grain will make good hay. The 
only difference between hay for cattle and 
horses is t hat it should be cut earlier for cat¬ 
tle. Stock of any kind don’t like rye hay as 
well as the other kinds of grain hay, but if 
they are fed no other kind they eat it well and 
do well on it. A lady was telling me last 
spring that her cows never gave so much milk 
when fed on any hay as they did when they were 
fed on rye hay. Last fall I had grain hay for 
my team. The days were short and I plowed 
a little over three acres of land a day. I fed 
with the hay two quarts of chop barley and 
bran mixed half and half. I never had a 
team do so much hard work and keep up as 
they did. I am now feeding Timothy and 
clover mixed, I don’t like it as well as the 
grain hay. 
ABOUT THE NATIONAL POTATO CONTEST. 
E. A. F., Hancock, Vt. —In the Rural of 
March 2, on reading the editorial allusion to 
the Women’s Potato Contest, I notice this ques¬ 
tion. Is it fair to award premiums to those 
who raise the largest yield of potatoes at the 
least cost? I am somewhat confused. I don’t 
just understand the object of this potato con¬ 
test. I supposed to raise the largest yield at 
the least expense was just what we were to 
work for. Is the object of this contest merely 
to induce us to spend all we can on a few hills 
of potatoes solely with the idea of getting a 
prize, or, perhaps, the name of raising the 
most potatoes, regardless of the expense? If 
so, 1, for one, have been laboringjunder a false 
idea of its purpose. I supposed it to be for the 
life-long good of potato culture. Again, how 
many women, do you suppose, have sent in 
their names who willjiot have any fertilizer 
or any money to buy it with, and who will 
have to depend entirely on barn manures? I 
live on a hill farm and don’t expect a pound 
of fertilizer—only what I can manufacture 
myself; but I intend to try to raise potatoes 
just the same. As to the committee, I should 
prefer those most competent without regard 
to sex. 
R. N.-Y.—The above reasoning is perfectly 
sound from our friend’s standpoint. The 
R. N.-Y. respectfully submits the following: 
Here is a constestautwho plants her potatoes in 
virgin soil, or in a soil rendered excessively 
rich by previous treatment. The cost, in 
such a case, will be nothing at all for manure 
or fertilizer and she will have a decided and 
unfair advantage over the many who will plant 
in comparatively poor soils. If the “ least- 
cost ” clause is to remain in, the latter class 
of contestants are virtually ruled out. 
AS TO COW-PEA HAY. 
F. C. F., Mobile, Ala.— I have raised hay 
from cow-peas for the last 15 years and think 
there is nothing better for stock of all kinds. 
My method of preparing the land and sowing 
is as follows: After the spring crop has been 
taken off (about April or May) I replow, al¬ 
though I have broken up sod land and sowed 
right on top and got a full stand. I sow from 
Vyl to 1}4 bushel to the acre broadcast and 
harrow in. I cut the peas as soon as they be¬ 
gin to bloom or are making runners, that being 
the best time as far as my experience goes. 
Then one gets all the leaves, which I consider 
the most valuable part, but if one leaves them 
to run and mat together the leaves will all be 
lost in curing. The stems remain and are too 
hard and woody, and unless they are cut up 
with a cutter and fed with ground feed, they 
would not be relished by stock. I cat the 
peas with a mower or by hand in the morning 
as soon as the dew is off, rake them in wind¬ 
rows in the evening, and finish curing them in 
cocks. Some people throw the vines on racks 
in the field to finish curing, but where these 
are not handy my plan is very good. They will 
then retain their bright and green color and 
be eagerly eaten by all stock. If peas are al¬ 
lowed to run and mat over the ground, as sug¬ 
gested by H. L. Wysor, in the first place they 
could not be cut with a mower and it would 
require more than three times the amount of 
labor to cut them by hand, to say nothing of 
the loss already stated. The peas that we 
generally get are somewhat mixed—Black 
Clay and Whippoorwill—but any of them is 
good unless two crops on one plot in a season 
are wanted; then I would prefer the last 
though this holds good only in this latitude I 
believe. 
BINDING-TWINE TRUST. 
H. Bros., Wheatland, Dak. —I noticed 
an article in the R. N.-Y. of March 23, 
on this matter. We farmers of the North 
west are greatly interested in the sub¬ 
ject of twine. On March 20, a farmers’ meet¬ 
ing was called to discuss the question in 
Casselton, Dak. I never before saw such a 
large assembly of farmers to discuss their in¬ 
terests. It was shown that flax could be 
grown successfully here, but as there were 
none present who could give any information 
as to the manufacturing of twine from flax, a 
committee was appointed to investigate the 
matter, and report at the call of the chairman 
of the meeting. The subject of headers was 
debated and it was proved that we could buy 
headers to cut our grain for less than the 
twine would cost us at present prices. The 
advisability of starting a factory for the 
purpose of manufacturing twine from flax 
at some point in the Red River Valley was 
discussed, and also an oil mill. With starch 
and sugar factories, of course, we cannot do 
anything, but we are going to grow the flax 
this season and many farmers said they would 
plant from 10 to 100 acres. The latest Trust 
is among the jobbers: they have all combined 
and their traveling men will take orders from 
merchants but give no prices; these are to be 
fixed to suit themselves, when the orders get 
to headquarters. We think it is about time 
some legislation should protect farmers. 
WOOL WASTE as BEDDING FOR STOCK. 
M. M., Medway,Mass. —Inalate}RuRALan 
inquirer asks whether wool waste i3 good for 
bedding cattle,andthe reply is “Yes,excellent.” 
I beg to differ. I used large quantities of it at 
one time, taking the waste ot a factory for 
three years. I looked at it, thought it would 
make good bedding and tried it, but it would 
not keep cattle clean. It was very far from 
clean itself, and it would adhere to the cattle, 
and it does not absorb much liquid on account 
of its oily character. It will heat, however, 
and the odor exhaled is enough to condemn it 
for use about the stable. Iu fact it is un¬ 
bearable. In my reading I found advice to 
rot it down before using it for manure, and 
I tried that, but was not pleased with the 
results. The product, with the addition of 
ground bone and muriate of potash, made 
good manure, but very much of its value ap¬ 
peared to have been lost, though I kept the 
rotting pile well covered with loam. I could 
only surmise that free nitrogen had escaped 
during the heating process. A great waste 
there certainly was in some way. I have 
found the best results in my own practice, by 
spreading the waste broadcast on the gi ound 
and plowing it in. The bone and potash can 
be applied aDd harrowed in the surface. Used 
in this way, the results were excellent for 
grass. I have seen much of it used by other 
parties and if it is used in this way it gives 
by far the best results. 
LIME FOR THE CABBAGE ROOT WORM. 
T. H. Hoskins, Newport, Vt.— Lawyers, 
as a rule, avoid proving too much. They 
make their points good with evidence (when 
they can) and rest there. In horticulture, it is 
pretty safe to say that evidence may prove so 
much as to be quite worthless; and it looks to me 
as if that were the case with Mr. Beckwith’s 
experiment, as reported by E. S. Goff, of the 
Geneva Experiment Station in the Rural, p. 
181. If the test made “seemed ” to show that 
the presence of lime in the soil about cab- 
